Japan, home to 125 million people, faces a significant issue with 9 million abandoned homes. Contributing factors include a declining population and intense urbanization. To address this, the government has launched initiatives leading to the emergence of numerous services aimed at assisting potential buyers.
For foreigners, this situation opens up opportunities to acquire inexpensive holiday homes, which can also serve as side businesses through platforms like Airbnb.
Notably, Japan allows foreigners to purchase property without requiring a long-term visa; even those on a tourist visa can buy a house.
Japan, a country with a population of 125 million, has 9 million abandoned homes. There are various factors like declining population, very high urbanization, etc.
A lot of services have come up to help buyers because of the government's initiatives to help save areas with large numbers of abandoned houses.
This issue presents opportunities to foreigners to have cheap holiday homes which they can use as a side business using services like Airbnb.
Japan is one of those countries where a foreigner can buy property without needing a long-term visa. A foreigner can buy a house just on a tourist visa.
Akiya, or the abandoned house, has become a buzzword among foreigners, both in Japan and those outside, with some interest in Japan.
With 9 million or 14% of total number of houses in Japan, these Akiya houses have existed for a long in Japan, but the urbanization, aging and declining population, inheritance taxes, and such other factors have seen them continuously growing in numbers.
And once someone thought that it could be a rare affordable way of not just owning a house in Japan but turning it into a side business, many jumped into the Akiya space, and the numbers of such people is also growing.
If you are one of those who look forward to owning a house in Japan, this article is something we should not miss.
Going where the demand is more always makes sense.
Japan is different. It always has been different. The contrast from western ways always worked in two way - some love it and some hate it.
However, the overall working environment and situations have been changing fast. The declining and aging population, the hunger to be competitive on global stage in soft power, and the improving startup ecosystem, all these factors have been creating a lot of opportunity with future prospects for growth.
The huge demand-supply gap of IT talent in Japan, combined with the fast aging and declining population of Japan offers great potential for foreign software engineers. A very detailed article with a lot of statistics.
The demand for IT engineers is continuously increasing in Japan. However, when foreigners check the sources about the average salaries, they do not get the correct picture because most of the sources mention averages for Japanese nationals which are comparatively less. This is an exhaustive guide mentioning various sources and some actual facts.
Japan has not been a leading force on the global startup map. A very few unicorns and all. But do such things tell the complete story of startups in Japan? Here is an analysis with lots of data points and facts which indicate that the startup scene in Japan is not as bad as people think.
Japan has been a slow runner in the startup race. However, the situation is rapidly changing. Part of this is because of Japanese government's initiatives to improve the startup ecosystem and part is because of changing mindsets of younger generation with improving risk appetite. This article presents some interesting statistics about startups in Japan.
Japan is a country with an acute shortage of software engineers. And unlike many other developed countries, getting a working visa is much easier in Japan.
It can happen in countries where life is very peaceful, people have a lot of time, and where people are so accustomed to be in their comfort zone that any change feels like a danger to them.
The short answer is process orientedness, discipline for everything and teamwork. I have worked in a few countries in APAC and Europe before settling down in Japan, and I would say that they would sacrifice time to market and profit margins by devoting so much efforts on quality.
All these above points contributed to Japan's great economic performance in the past. However, Japan always lacked in being competitive on global stage in software. Especially in this startup era where time to market and MVP are very important. Lack of English language skills and workforce diversities have been two other roadblocks. do check this link - https://www.employmentjapan.com/tech-corner/startups-ecosyst... which mentions some of the main reason that Japan has been lagging behind on startups scene.
Things are changing now and many progressive tech companies started realizing the importance of change - however, the traditions are so deeply tooted in the business scene that changes are slow.
Exactly, that's the idea. Japanese multinationals are in all developed and developing countries. They always need Japanese speaking bilinguals because there are always so many Japanese who may not be speaking English. Just for an example if we search on LinkedIn for Japanese speaking jobs in the USA, at any point of time we would find 5000-6000 such jobs only in USA. And, all jobs would never be on LinkedIn.
Same is the case with any other countries. So, yes, the idea is to have partners in various countries. Countries like the US may have two partners (East and West costs), while many other countries can just have one partner with exclusive rights for that country.
Japan is a land of opportunities for tech professionals. The country with its aging and declining population and growing tech industry creates a lot of job opportunities for foreigners.
As it happens, honeymoons don't last forever:). So, if it all started just for the sake of honeymoon, it would end soon.
In my case I started business in partnership with a person who was reporting to me. I worked with her for 5 years before jumping the ship to co-found a business and then another startup. There was trust and understanding.
We do have differences of opinion about every second point and we do fight a lot. But if the foundation of trust and more importantly the passion and determination to make your creation a success, rather that what's going in your own pocket then things can last as long as you last.
We are into our 4th year and growing fast, and things are going on just fine.
Sincere apologies that I made a type for the URLand typed https://www.employmentjapan.com/ with a "We" after the slash. In fact it was not a typo but the space bar seems to be pi$$ed with me :(.
The onmly thing I could do was seeting up a redirect, which I did.
Not exactly co-founder, but for ReachExt K.K.'s new business line https://www.employmentjapan.com/we are looking for countrywise business partners. In a way the person or entity would be as good as a co-founder for his/her own country because the profit sharing will be as close to being a founder - though limited to the operations/business of one country.
I would say that if we invest the first few years building a solid skillset base, possibly with a reputed company, we can get what we want later and then they may not be any stopping.
I would say that if we feel some lack of passion in the regular job the it's already the time to start wondering: "is this really where I want to be?".
However, starting something of our own needs a very careful planning. It also debends on an individual's situation.
I wnt through that journey myself. I was loving my job, but then came a time when I felt that it reached that stage when many of two days were proving to be same. I was into IT, but had moved to the business side. Starting a tech venture just based on my skillsets was not possible. I decided to start something into IT recruitment. It was something completely new to me. A completely different path.
It was not really ethical to devote time in preparing myslelf for the new journey, when I was in aregular (and damn good) job. But then sometimes one needs to weigh - it's my tomorrow's survival and success or being a Godly monk - only 100% loyalty to the employers. Well, I decided that after close to a decade of giving my 120% or more to the company for 10 years, it would not be unethical if I give 75% for 6 months or so.
I am not ashamed to say that, that's what I did. 25% time for 6 months used in preparing and learning about my new hourney - and then I started my nown company 3 years back - and since then we only greww, with no looking back.
For foreigners, this situation opens up opportunities to acquire inexpensive holiday homes, which can also serve as side businesses through platforms like Airbnb.
Notably, Japan allows foreigners to purchase property without requiring a long-term visa; even those on a tourist visa can buy a house.